Yes, it’s been months since I posted and yes, it’s been months since I scrapped or did anything creative. Too much work, not enough willing subjects and not enough time is to blame. Yesterday I was reminded by my old pals Celeste Smith and Doris Sander that it’s time for Calvinball (remember that?).

Celeste posted this photo that I doctored many years ago where I slapped Celeste’s head on Molly’s body when she was super-girl for Halloween (back in 2008) – see the original cuteness here (they both went with the super hero theme, weren’t they adorable?)

Anyhoo, the upshot of all this is that they’ve started playing Calvinball on GetItScrapped. I’m not sure I have it in me to participate but I am going to try to do a layout every day this month. I’ve even started! Here’s my first layout (it’s also my first layout this YEAR – gasp!). I did a little shopping at Designer Digitals to get my mojo going:

I’m hoping to stick with it for the month…maybe it will take my mind off all the snow.

Hello, my name is Paula and I think I’ve forgotten how to scrapbook. I know, how can that be? Me, who used to scrap every single day, even if only for a few minutes. I’ve been doing it for years. Years! And yet, I’ve fallen out of the habit and now I just can’t seem to start again.

Yes, yes, I know all the tricks:

find a subject/photo that speaks to me

look for an inspiration piece

scrap-lift someone

scrap-lift myself!

buy new products

find a challenge or sketch

And yet, here I sit, unable to figure out where to start. I’ve got a stash of new photos from our vacation in Hawaii, a code for a free Shutterfly book (and a deadline!) but no mojo. I can empathize with all those people who would like to start but don’t know where to begin. I remember my very first page – it was for my wedding album and I think it took me about 3 months. It’s got one photo and no journaling but committing to it was so hard (the page, not the wedding!). I’ve got a little of the same apprehension right now but with digi-scrapping I can just ctrl-Z my way out of any mess – so what’s the deal?

I think I’ll just have to throw caution to the wind and just do it. Whatever “it” is. I’m going to schedule some time to scrapbook and not try to fit it in here and there.

ETA: Here it is. The cover page of my album. Just a photo and very few words. It’s a start.

I really wanted to find something to show off these photos but nothing really worked so I decided to go back to simple. This inspiration piece is a table of contents from an online magazine:

And my take, using photos that really need to be seen as LARGE as possible (oh well!):

You really don’t get the sense of the scale of the trees here but I couldn’t find an inspiration piece that worked so I just went with this one. I love the crisp white background of the inspiration piece but I decided to use a blended photo of the trees since I felt it added to the story. I might have to re-use these photos if I can think of a better way to showcase them. Do you ever do that?

After a long hiatus, I’m back with at least one new challenge. I’m not finding much to inspire me layout-wise in magazines but I did find this piece through the wonders of the internet – it’s a movie poster:

It jumped right out at me – it was perfect for the large group shot I took last weekend at my son’s baseball game:

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